Loss of Limb
by Squeaker-Dee
Summary: Lonble is lonely and needs someone to talk to after his tragedy, will there be anyone or will he be left alone? Oneshot. Manga based. Spoilers for volume 10 and volume 6.


Lately, I've really been getting into the Elemental Gelade manga. I haven't actually watched the anime of it, though I have watched AMVs. After reading volume 10 of the manga, I must admit I felt rather lost. Why? Lets just say because I found Lonble totally awesome! Even though he'd only made a short show in the manga before he died, I added him to my list of my favourite characters from the manga. And admittidly enough, I like him better than Grayarts, I don't know why, I just do.

So, I've decided that I wouldn't allow Lonble to die without some respect! So I wrote a oneshot of him, managing to survive and escaping from Gladias and his raid Iduey.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Elemental Gelade, only the plot of this oneshot. Oh and this oneshot was inspired by the Buffy and Angel theme "Close your eyes" by Christopher Beck I think it is...

Enjoy!

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_"Lonble!"  
_

_I flinched as I felt frail, weakening fingers cling onto the back of my leg. Twisting around, I found her laid on her stomach, blood drying in her hair and oozing down her face, blinding an eye that could barely open to look at me. It was then that I felt my heart sink deeper, drawing closer to my feet. _

_"Corda!" I yelled, panic rushing through me as my edel raid lay there, looking at me desperately. _

_"This is bad," she began, her voice distant and weak. Tears dripped from her spared eye as she looked up at me desperately. "Very bad, Lonble," she squeaked, pulling on my leg. "Hurry"_

_I fell to the ground, scooping my fallen angel up and holding her. She was limp in my arms. I felt her powers drain away as quickly as the warmth of her body. I panicked. "CORDA!" _

I don't really remember much after that. That guy, no, that _bastard_, Gladias mumbled a bunch of stuff to me, not that I was listening. I don't know if he realised, but I was holding one of my Sweet Angels, dead in my arms and the rest around me were all dead too.

I knew he was going to kill me, I just did, I don't know why though. And I wasn't going to take my chances either, so I ran for it. It was then that I was destined to die, but it didn't happen – and I have Cowgirl to thank for that. At least, I think I do, like I said, I don't remember much after Corda died in my arms. But I assume the bullet that knocked that bastard's pipe away was hers.

And I wasn't going to stop to thank her for it, if it was her, either. I just ran for it, obviously getting some strange looks from the fancy dressed locals as I raced through the streets, heading for a place of salvation. That of which I had found in a local inn. At the time, I was a bit too shaky to explain why I had the blood of my edel raids on my hands. I only had one thing going through my head at that time and it's still there now.

_I'm all alone. _

It's true, I am. I've got no edel raids. I've got their blood on my hands. And I didn't even complete either my mission or ambition.

And I've never felt so damn pathetic in my entire life.

I, Lonble, the man who could handle lots of edel raids at the same time, was forced to his knees by ONE man and his ONLY edel raid. That puny, stupid raid and its pleasure. I'd kill them, but I've got no raids anymore nor do I have the motivation to get them back anymore.

Corda's voice still echoes through my head even now. She told me to hurry. She wanted me to get away with my life. She cared for me, they all did. They weren't just a collection of pretty tools like I first thought they were. No. They were so much more. They all had their own abilities and personalities and they all looked out for one another. The thing they really had in common was me, their pleasure. They fought with me, laughed with me, adored me and, above all, protected me.

_"Hurry"_

I groaned and slammed my palm over my eyes as the sun filtered through the curtains and pooled onto the sheets of my bed. "Corda..." I mumbled as I kicked the sheets away and sat up in my bed.

Even now I hear her voice, so small, so desperate.

Swinging my legs over the side of my bed, I removed my hand from my eyes and glare at my feet. My toes twitched and muscles tensed under my gaze. My fists clenched. "Why," I whispered, bringing a fist up. "Damn it! Why did you run away!?" I screamed, slamming my fist onto my leg. I winced. That was going to bruise.

I sighed. "There's just no point in blaming these damned legs of mine anymore, is there?"

I scratched the back of my head. It was always soar there, well, psychologically speaking it was. You know, whenever you've done or didn't do something and it's always there at the back of your head, nagging at you? Yeah, seems I've got a strong case of that.

I froze when my stomach rumbled loudly. "Might as well go down for some breakfast," I grumbled, still scratching that sore spot. "It's not like I have to worry about paying as much for it anymore..."

---A little later---

The inn was a ghost town, as usual; barely anyone came to stay here, which surprised me, it wasn't half-bad and the people running it have let me have a number of free nights. They obviously pitied me, not that I wanted it, but then again I was never in the mood to argue – not anymore.

I went to pull up the usual chair at the table in the far corner of the room when something caught my eye. For once, I wasn't the only one indulging myself to their hearty breakfast for there was another; a man was sat at the bar with a glass before him. I squinted my eyes. Something about him seemed very familiar. He had dark brown hair that was a mess, though it seemed he made the effort to keep it out of his dull eyes. A pair of filthy, white trousers hung around his legs. I could not see what shirt he was wearing or anything around his torso as he worse a ragged, mucky cloak. Personally, he looked VERY worse for wear, but the look on his face gave me the idea that this was simply his casual wear. Even in the – to be blunt – crap mood I've been in since... _that thing_ happened, I couldn't help but let out the tiniest snicker at him.

A small snicker that he heard as his dark eyes snapped over to me. I froze, my eyes meeting his own for the moment he stared at me. His eyes, they were so... blank. They were a complete void of emotion and on top of that they had huge bags beneath them, indicating that the man had little sleep. The guy didn't look healthy in the face at all. His skin was unnaturally pale, his lips were chapped and his face didn't look full enough for his build, as if he lost a lot of weight.

I shuffled my feet awkwardly. "Sorry," I mumbled, my eyes averting his. He didn't say anything as he turned back to face his drink, leaning towards the straw sticking out. I glared at the ground beside me. I've never felt so out of character in my life! Normally I would have passed some snide remark or ignored him completely. And if I did apologise, it would have been because my girls would have told me to. Not because of that look in his eye!

My body then went stiff. _That look in his eye..._ I repeated.

_"This is bad. Very bad, Lonble" _

I shook my head viciously. Corda. Still echoing inside of my head. _Why won't she go away and rest? Why? _

My eyes looked down at my legs and looked fiercely at them. _WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY, DAMN IT!?_

I almost felt as though I was going to snap, when that man interrupted my thoughts. I blinked at the sound of him slurping at his drink and my eyes wondered up to gaze at him again. He was leaning forward in his seat, only just managing to reach at the straw in his drink. I grimaced. _Why doesn't he just bring the drink forward instead of-?_

I then remembered.

"Grayarts?" I breathed, remembering Bienenritter talking about him before. He was a singer, if I remember rightly, with an edel raid named Cocovet or something like that. The two of them were sent to capture the Shichikohoju when they were out at sea. But they failed. Grayarts had his arms cut off as punishment and Cocovet was...

The man looked up at me, frowning. "Who's asking?" He spat, his voice harsh and raspy, as though he had a very bad cold. I advanced over to him, hesitating before I took a seat beside him. "I'm Lonble," I began, unsure why and how I was going to make conversation with him. "I work-"I paused and shook my head. "I _used_ to work under Bienenritter, she's told me about you. What are you doing here?"

Grayarts went back to his drink, slurping with labour before turning back to me. "Why would _you_ care?"

I growled. _Damn, he's already annoying me. _"Because," I bit my tongue, angered already that I was about to say this, something even MORE out of my character. "My edel raids are all gone, I... I need someone to talk to!"

Grayarts pulled back, surprised at my sudden outburst. I glanced at him. _I'm much more surprised than he is actually, _I told myself, anger flushing to my cheeks. I always hated admitting whenever I needed help.

"They were all killed and I wasn't even aware of it until it was too late. Corda, she was still alive, barely, and she made me run for it. So I did. I ran for my life and now... I'm really starting to regret it" I was looking down at my fists, clenched on my lap as I openly spilled everything to the man I've never met. "I was a coward"

I didn't know if Grayarts was moved or not as I dared not look up at him. I was not acting like myself at the moment; I was a whole different person right now. I was a stupid, needy, hopeless person. Who knew my Sweet Angels would drive me to such a dependable state that I would ask for a strangers ear.

"How do you cope, Grayarts?" I asked, noticing him flinch out of the corner of my eye. I swallowed hard, closed my eyes and lowered my head. "... How?"

"Do you think I've got a sore throat right now?" Grayarts said simply, looking at me harshly as my chin tilted up and eyes cracked open.

"What?" Was all I could muster.

Grayarts turned away from me and shuffled forward in his seat. The stubs for his arms poked out from under his cloak and settled up on the bar as Grayarts looked down coldly at them. "When she was gone. When Cocovet was taken away, after I begged for them not to take her, I didn't like the feeling of being alone. So, do you know what I did?"

I shook my head. "No"

My stomach churned as Grayarts lips twitched into a small smirk. "I sang"

"What?"

"I sang. Sang every song that Cocovet and I shared together non-stop for so many nights, hoping they'd somehow bring her back to me. But it was obviously foolish," he chuckled bitterly and flicked his eyes over to me. "I lost my arms that day too and I thought that was the punishment I would receive from failing to retrieve what we were sent out for"

I looked down at the ground for a brief moment. "The Shichikohoju"

The singer nodded. "Yeah, that's it. But it turned out that my punishment wasn't enough, so they took her away too. I couldn't sleep for a long time, blaming myself, blaming that stupid blonde kid from Arc Aile"

My fists grew tighter. _Arc Aile. If they weren't there I could have easily retrieved the Shichikohoju and be on my way. With my Sweet Angels!_ Suddenly, the strength gathered in my hands weakened. _But, then again..._

_"My, my. This behaviour is not acceptable" _

_I ignored Gladias's warning and kept on running. It was then that I heard Cowgirl say something and assumedly save my life. _

_"Not so fast!"She yelled. _

_I just kept on running._

I bit my lip and swallowed the disagreement with him; I didn't want an argument right now. "Hey, Grayarts"

"What?" The singer scoffed, his gruff voice grinding at my ears.

"What do you think I should do? I've lost all of my Sweet Angels, all _twelve _of them! Murdered! Grayarts, what should I do?" I lifted a fist and slammed it onto my leg, no doubt bruising it again. My head hung. "What should I do now?"

Grayarts leaned forward and slurped on his drink again. There was a long pause of deadly silence, so much so that I could almost hear Corda's voice as if she were stood right next to me."Live on," he said, breaking the long silence. My head lifted back up and I looked at him, my mouth gaping a little. The singer sighed and turned to me. "I hear Cocovet all the time, whispering my name before she died. They took her core stone, ripping it out of her right before my eyes and the last thing she said was my name. That's because she didn't want me to give up, I know that now, I must move on no matter how loud her voice is in my head"

"Corda..." I muttered, relating to Grayarts problem instantly. I lifted a hand up and scratched that sore spot again.

"Nothing would make me happier than swapping places with Cocovet, but I know I can't. And, more importantly," Grayarts leaned over to me, looking me straight in the eye. "I know that she'd be glad with the position she was in. She'd never want to have watched me die, seeing me losing my arms was bad enough for her. So, Lonble, think of it this way"

He stopped for a moment, taking the time to bore into my eyes.

"They won't want to see you like this when they're alive and so they won't dead. Realise this now, because I did too late and now look at me," he said solemnly. Uncontrollably my eyes softened. "Loss of limb won't make them happy, no matter where they are"

I almost burst out in laughter at that moment. _Loss of limb he says? _"Sorry," I began, not even trying to fight off the smirk on my face, "but it's too late for me too"

Grayarts gave me a stern look. "...Why?" He spat, his glaring eyes looking me up and down. "You haven't lost anything physically or mentally, otherwise you'd end up in my state"

This time, I laughed. I laughed to the high heavens where my Sweet Angels were no doubt watching me. My head was thrown back and mouth wide open in glee as I laughed. Grayarts shuffled his seat away and stared at me cautiously. I held up my hand, stopping him from backing away any further. I wiped a tear from my eye and exhaled loudly, calming myself down.

"Oh Grayarts, you don't understand. Since they passed away, I've changed so much, I hate how out of character I am too. It's far too late. The pleasure those girls adored so much is now dead," I frowned, the gleefulness wiped clean off my face. "So, Grayarts, I really am in the same state as you"

I gave the singer a bleak look before I elevated from my seat and turned my back on him, hands tucked away in my pockets. "Thanks for listening" I said, wincing at the sudden manner I gained and stalked out of the room. Grayarts eyes followed me; I knew they were, I could feel it.

"Weren't you coming for some food or something?" He asked, though he didn't sound like he cared.

I stopped in my tracks and shrugged my shoulders. "No, I've lost my appetite"

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Yay Lonble! I'll probably end up writing some more oneshots about this guy and probably Grayarts too, I've got some ideas and on top of that Elemental Gelade needs more fan-fics T ^ T so I'll see what I can do!

Please review X.


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